WASHINGTON – Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has filed a lawsuit in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit seeking to force an up or down vote by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on the licensing of Yucca Mountain and to stop the Department of Energy from spending tax dollars on “consent-based” siting. The National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners has released the following statement regarding this filing:

“The federal government has collected billions of dollars from ratepayers for nuclear waste disposal. It is past time for Congress to appropriate the funds to complete review of the Yucca Mountain license application as required by law. If this lawsuit ratchets up pressure for the DOE to focus on complying with the law, or for Congress to appropriate the funds already collected, then it is the right thing to do.”

—NARUC Executive Director Greg R. White

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NARUC is a non-profit organization founded in 1889 whose members include the governmental agencies that are engaged in the regulation of utilities and carriers in the fifty States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. NARUC's member agencies regulate telecommunications, energy, and water utilities. NARUC represents the interests of State public utility commissions before the three branches of the Federal government.